Terminology related question for proficient users.

[tulx]

Hello everyone!

Today I have a question not as a PC enthusiast but as a translator and terminologist.
There's one specific thing I would like to hear some opinions about.

What exactly does "Boot" imply? Is it the checking and starting of the hardware or does it include loading the OS? If that's the case, is "Shut Down" the opposite?
And in case "Boot" is solely the power-up of the hardware, does that make "Startup" the opposite of "Shut Down"?

This might sound somewhat unclear at first, but please try to give it a thought. If my question really won't make a sense, let me know and I'll try to rephrase it. Nuances like these are crucial when working with multilingual terminology and trying to find/make up the equivalent in the target language.

 

[tulx]

Thank you for the prompt reply!

So does this make "Shut Down" the opposite process? I remember some older computers executed "Shut Down" by closing the OS but not turning off the hardware. (The "It is now safe to turn off your computer" or smth like that message after Windows was closed).
In short - am I right in stating that "Shut Down" implies the OS and not the hardware? Or is there no definite answer here? That might be the case as well, after all.

 

[pjmelect]

The term “boot” comes from the saying “picking oneself up by your own bootlaces” Back in the early days of computing on the start up of a computer a small program in ROM was used to load the operating system into high memory and then the ROM was switched out to free up the low memory, this program in ROM was called the boot program and the terminology has remained to this day and now refers to the process of starting up a computer.
So “shut down” is the opposite process of turning on the computer however back in the days before Windows XP the operating system may not have been capable of turning off the computer as power management had not been standardized, so you got the message. "It is now safe to turn off your computer"

 

[tulx]

Thank you very much for the elaborate explanation, pjmelect!